Lafayette charter names ‘principal in training’ for school

Lafayette Renaissance Charter Academy’s assistant principal, Erin Gray, has been named “principal in training” of the campus following the resignation of the charter school’s founding principal.

LaTonia Harris led the school through its first year of operations and resigned to take a job at another Charter Schools USA-managed school in Lake Charles.

Raquel Square-Ayles, the regional education director for the Florida-based charter management company, sent parents a letter this month notifying them of the changes.

She said Harris will take over as principal of Southwest Louisiana Charter Academy, describing it as a unique opportunity for Harris and her husband “to serve the educational and developmental needs of students in the Lake Charles area.”

Lafayette Renaissance Charter Academy opened in August 2014 in the northern part of the parish.

Gray served as assistant principal of the school after working in the Lafayette Parish School System as a teacher at J. Wallace James Elementary and as principal of Carencro Heights Elementary School. She holds a master’s degree in educational leadership from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.